FILE – In this Friday June 26, 2015, file photo, a man holds a U.S. and a rainbow flag outside the Supreme Court in Washington after the court legalized gay marriage nationwide. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Among the most tear-producing moments: the congratulatory call from President Obama to plaintiff Jim Obergefell, captured live on CNN and replayed through the morning.

NPR and the cable news networks shifted into full-on, wall-to-wall mode, hopping from celebrants to reactions on both sides to legal scholars and LGBT leaders.

Evidence of a new day in media: BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Mashable changed their Twitter avatars to reflect the rainbow flag. Traditional mainstream media outlets would never be allowed to show such partisanship. Displays of support popped up all over social media.

No fear of treading lightly on MSNBC, where the victory for advocates was celebrated.

Thomas Roberts, Photo provided by MSNBC

Thomas Roberts (a one-time Advocate cover personality) was professional in his MSNBC anchor capacity yet, as a very public gay man who talks about his relationship on the air, was openly ecstatic with the ruling. His comments were personal, patriotic and moving.

Fox News, where anchors didn’t disguise a sense of disappointment or frustration, reported today’s decision “could be the start of a bigger fight” around religious beliefs. Fox News commentator Susan Ferrechio predicted the decision would be crucial in the coming elections, noting “it does open up a whole ‘nother issue” (sic).

As media flew into “reax” mode, it took two hours of getting reactions around the country to get to a person of color: at last, CNN interviewed George Takei.

Best Tweet, summarizing the divide on media coverage in two headlines:

Police in riot gear prepare to take up positions Saturday, Aug, 16, 2014, as people protest the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) (Charlie Riedel/AP)

“Ferguson on Edge,” MSNBC telegraphs. “Tensions Build,” CNN alerts. “Tensions are running high in Ferguson. What is going to happen on the streets there?” Fox News asked. “We’re watching.”
If you’ve watched cable news lately, you are aware of the fine line they are walking between capturing the mood in Ferguson, Mo., in advance of a grand jury decision and practically inciting a violent mood.

Pictures of boarded up windows of stores, talk of the National Guard on standby, “rumors” of certain groups secretly plotting violence in case there is no indictment… the drumbeat is curiously eager.

As you recall, violence erupted, and heavily armed police clashed with angry protesters demanding justice in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police officebracr Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. “Some predict that will be the case again when the grand jury’s decision is announced,” CNN reported.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency as a precaution and St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said his officers are ready for whatever happens.

Those are the facts. It’s the tone that’s worrisome. Will there be blood? Might there be shooting? They’re guessing for all they’re worth. After all, these networks have hours and hours to fill and the anticipation of possible violence, to be telecast live around the world, is just too much for cable news to resist.

Number crunching isn’t just for political junkies anymore. The media’s 2014 mid-term election coverage flooded viewers with data, onscreen and online. Some notable sights and sounds of the coverage:
Tom Brokaw’s cellphone alarm went off in the midst of doing analysis on MSNBC. He joked, still a pro on live TV.
The Denver Post’s political reporter Lynn Bartels was literally bumped offscreen during a 9News live shot with Rep. Mike Coffman, no, make that Ken Buck.
CBS4’s Jim Benneman had to walk back a mistaken call on Jared Polis. “He put his glasses on,” Shaun Boyd said as Benneman corrected himself.
Marshall Zelinger worked his own magic wall on 7News (on web and cable channel 247), Kyle Clark and Kevin Torres ran a cute faux race for 9News anchor on social media. Brandon Rittiman and Floyd Ciruli focused on seven key Colorado counties taking the micro- view (on KTVD). “We’re still learning this fancy machine,” Rittiman said, checking his writing on the flat screen.
The long shot of Adele Arakawa (on KTVD) getting up from the desk, talking while crossing the studio behind cameras, walking around desks to question analysts seemed… unnecessary. They can’t talk to each other via the camera? Boyd of CBS4 (on KBDI) and Eli Stokols (on KWGN) did what they do best, holding forth on their respective stations, each energized by the pressure.

Just wondering, what do the color blind do on mid-term Election Night? Following on tablet, phone and old-school TV, the picture everywhere separated into red and blue palettes. On CNN, the Empire State Buildig was illuminated red/blue, John King and his Magic Wall tapped out the red/blue suspense. The debate ensued: was it a splash of red? a wave of red? a tsunami?

Worst innovation: CNN’s pre-taped setup bits were annoying, similar to NBC Olympics moments, treating political coverage as showbiz. The graphics on CNN were busier and the “alerts” more excitable than MSNBC or Fox News Channel.

Most notable meltdown after the results were in: Chris Matthews, spitting fire on MSNBC. He was punchy at 1 a.m. ET, reaching for a Cory Gardner comparison with “a squirrel is a rat in cuter garb.” Or something.

The battle for the Colorado governorship, too close to call for hours, kept the suspense going. This tweet from Fox31’s Mark Meredith gave us permission to retire for the night:

Mark Meredith @markpmeredith
BREAKING: @Hick2014 will wait until tomorrow to declare victory or defeat. Election will go until Wednesday #coplitics

If you ignored the numbers, maps, percentages and exit polls, and concentrated solely on the tone of the TV and cable news teams, the story of Election night 2012 was clear from the start.

Beginning early in the evening, the broadcasters and guest commentators on Fox News looked glum, sounded pessimistic and, led by Bill O’Reilly, started making excuses. (Hurricane Sandy swept Obama into office!) Assuming they had access to more information than we did, the dour tone on Fox indicated things were not going well for Gov. Romney. While the other networks stuck to impartial objectivity, Fox News anchors and guests let themselves sound defeated.

[media-credit name=”ABC News” align=”alignright” width=”270″] Stills from the final presidential debate on Monday.

As predicted, baseball and football took a bite out of the ratings for the third and final presidential debate Monday. Still, 59.2 million viewers tuned in — more than for the third presidential debate in 2008, fewer than for any of this season’s debates.

With Fox broadcast networks otherwise engaged, Fox News Channel scored its biggest victory yet, 11.5 million viewers, beating both baseball and football, not to mention CNN and MSNBC (both of which it also beat). That 11.5 milllion was the best in Fox News Channel’s 16-year history.

NBC is bragging about how well its coverage of the first night of the Democratic National Convention did in the ratings. On Tuesday, a network release said, “more Americans turned to NBC News for coverage of the first night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention than any other broadcast or cable television network.”

So naturally NBC will punt on night two of the DNC. Instead of offering live coverage from Charlotte, like ABC and CBS, NBC will stick to football (Giants v. Cowboys).

Early Nielsen ratings suggest the Fox News Channel easily outpaced the cable competition on Tuesday night, likely outscoring the broadcast networks, as well, although those numbers won’t be available until Thursday.
From 811 p.m. ET, Fox News averaged 6.9 million total viewers (2.4 million in the target demo, age 25-54).
CNN was second with 2.4 million total viewers (1.0 million in the demo). MSNBC trailed with 1.9 million total viewers (669,000 in the demo).

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.